Division 2 crown down to the wire
CHAMPIONS Princes St A rounded off their campaign with an 8-2 home success in a rearranged match against Crosby A, who were a little understrength to be fair.
But nevertheless a great season was completed in the way it was started and played throughout.
Congratulations again to the Champs.
Argyle A finished off their programme off in style with a very good 7-3 home victory against a Crosby A side who were again short of a few regulars, where once again the hosts looked a different proposition since the return of Julian Quirk.
Crosby C who still have a couple of matches outstanding, secured second place after a 7-3 home win over Argyle B. Stefan Schober Thomson and Liam Shaw were the hosts stand out performers, whilst Ben Aitken with a full quota of wins stood out for the visitors.
With Division 1 winners Princes St C having completed their fixtures, the battle for second place was finally sorted, with Southport A doing what they had to, and some more, after a convincing 1-9 victory away at Crosby D.
With a tremendous second half of the season where they won 8 and drew one stretching back to before Christmas, surely, they can regard themselves as being a tad unlucky to say the least.
Princes St B also finished well, with an 8-2 home win against Argyle C, whilst Formby Village A were victors in their ‘derby’ against their B team, where it finished 8-2.
Princes St F played the first of two matches this week, which could well go a long way to them clinching the Division 2 title.
It was a must see occasion, so that’s where we headed to see them take on their E team. Still without Genadijs Afanasjevs,
it was a dream start from the leaders too, with wins from first Darren Taylor, followed by Dave Mullan and Dave Noden all in three straight, to make it 3-0 to the F team.
E team captain Harry Hobson then pulled one back which was followed by an exceptional controlled victory by Joe Brolly over the F team captain and talisman Dave Mullan to reduce the arrears further.
Dave Noden and Irene Mullan
then steadied the ship for the leaders with an efficient success against Harry and Josiah’s brother Asher, only for Josiah and Joe to put the ‘cat amongst the pigeons’ with a tremendous 4-11,10-12, 11-2, 2-11 victory over Darren and Dave Mullan which made it 4-3 F team.
It seemed it wasn’t going to plan, but the captains other half Irene stepped in to restore some belief for the would be ‘Champs’ in the contest of the night, edging a five game epic against Asher, 1-11,12-10,511,11-5,13-11, wow, that was close.
Buoyed on by his doubles success with Joe and more so by his earlier disappointment, Josiah made amends with a terrific four game victory over Darren to bring it close again at 5-4 with one contest to go.
This wasn’t the ending I had envisaged, especially with the start the F team had, but fittingly the match was finally won by Dave Noden who completed his full quota of wins with an excellent four game win over Joe, to secure a valuable 6-4 victory. Fabulous night’s entertainment.
In their other match Princes St travelled to Waterloo to face another tough one in their quest for the title, and got off to another flyer with wins from Darren Taylor and Dave Mullan, before Jeff Hornby and Nikolaj Primuck pulled it back to 2-2.
Number one Dave Noden then restored the visitors lead only for Dave Bradley to tie it up again at 3-3.
Nikolaj then came out on top of the battle of the number ones to edge his team ahead, before unfortunately captain Dave Mullan then had to concede due to illness, making it 5-3 Waterloo.
A superb match was settled in the first doubles contest with Nikolaj and Dave winning an epic tussle in five games versus Dave Noden and Darren, 12-10 in the fifth, after which Darren and Gordon Wood rescued a consolation to make the final score 6-4 Waterloo B.
Just how important that will prove will be decided in the Division 2 ‘showdown’ next week between the top two, Princes St F need 4 pts, whilst Rainford need a 7-3 victory to win it by the narrowest of margins… Can’t wait!
Talking of Rainford, they continued their chase,with a good 8-2 home win against Crosby E, which in normal circumstances would have been fine, but those two points dropped could have left the door open a little more for the leaders.
Argyle D finished their programme off on a high note with a notable home victory against Princes St D.
Argyle number one Pat Devlin took the plaudits with a fabulous double which proved pivotal in the 6-4 success.
Southport C became Division 3 Winners after a convincing 9-1 home win in their last match, over an understrength Crosby F.
Congratulations then, to captain Jordan Shandley and his team for a very successful season.
Southport B didn’t do that bad either finishing in third position after they didn’t quite finish with the same flourish, in a 3-7 home loss to a very strong Argyle E, but what a very good season they have had, capping it off too in reaching 100 pts.
Finally, Crosby G’s home match with Carlton did not take place.
All information can be found at southport.ttleagues. com or on our Facebook page ‘Southport and District Table Tennis’
As they stand with a couple of key matches to play it looks like this...
PREMIER DIVISION Princes St A
Crosby C
Crosby A
Argyle A
DIVISION 1 Princes St C Southport A Princes St B Formby Village A
DIVISION 2 Princes St F Rainford Waterloo B Princes St D
DIVISION 3 Southport C Argyle F Southport B Argyle E
125 pts C 76 pts 76 pts 64 pts
127 pts C 116 pts 111 pts 104 pts
105 pts 101 pts 98 pts 95 pts
135 pts C 118 pts 100 pts 93 pts